Christian Apologists: Be Careful of Oprah's Spiritual Teachings

Apologists Josh McDowell (sitting) and Dave Sterrett (standing) explain to audience members why Christians should be careful when listening to Oprah Winfrey's spiritual teachings at an event hosted by McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Va., on Friday, January 22, 2010.

Vienna, VA. – She is persuasive, influential and does a lot of good, but Christians should be careful when Oprah speaks about spirituality, warned two apologists who recently co-authored a book on the subject.

To a crowd of more than 1,500 people at McLean Bible Church outside of Washington, D.C,. on Friday evening, renowned apologist Josh McDowell and up-and-coming apologist Dave Sterrett explained the danger of adopting Oprah’s spiritual teachings from a Christian perspective.

They pointed out that the talk show queen and the spiritual teachers she promotes teach pantheism – God is all and all is God – and that there are multiple paths to reach God. She also emphasizes that people should carry out their inner longings instead of restraining themselves if the act is said to be a sin by the Bible.

“Here is where you got to be careful,” emphasized McDowell. “Not only Oprah but others use Christian or religious terminologies that Christians would accept as Christian."

(Photo: Peter Rice)

Apologists Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett discuss Oprah Winfrey's spirituality from a Christian perspective at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Va., to promote their new book, ''O'' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality on Friday, January 22, 2010.

(Photo: Peter Rice)

(l-r) Dave Sterrett and Josh McDowell sign copies of their new book, ''O'' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality, at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Va., on Friday, January 22, 2010.

(Photo: Peter Rice)

Apologists Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett speak about what Christians need to know about Oprah's spirituality at an event at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Va., on Friday, January 22, 2010.

“The Christian God is a personal creator God which all truth resides, who is totally outside of ourselves and outside of our universe,” explained the best-selling author of More Than a Carpenter. “When Oprah and others refer to God, it is an impersonal force. And I think one way that comes out is that they will say, ‘Look within you and find yourself from within. Find that God-consciousness. That is God.’”

In their book, “O” God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah’s Spirituality, the apologists warn that Oprah “uses the language of the Bible and Christian traditions” but mixes that with other traditions to “create a hodgepodge of personalized faith.”

They point out in their book that Oprah, during her first A New Earth Web seminar on March 3, 2008, told participants that Christ came to show people that they can discover their own “Christ-consciousness.”

One of the main characters in the book, Lindsey, who is struggling to make sense of Christianity and Oprah’s spirituality, says at one point:

“Maybe Jesus was no more God than you and I are. Maybe we’re all just part of the UltimateBeing that we call God or Universal Energy or that Eckhart (Tolle) calls Consciousness. Eckhart (author of Oprah Book Club’s pick A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose) doesn’t feel that it is arrogant for me to say, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’ If Jesus said it, why can’t I?”

"O" God Authors McDowell and Sterrett

But McDowell warned Friday that reliance on this inner consciousness is dangerous because it can justify sin since people should follow what they feel rather than an absolute Truth.

McDowell recalled an episode on an Oprah Winfrey Show last year where former evangelical leader Ted Haggard, who was involved in a gay sex and drug scandal, and his wife Gayle were guests. Gayle said that her husband has struggled with homosexuality since he was 12 years old and that he is trying hard to bring the desires under control and defeat it.